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CU Golfers Hope Tiger Practice Brings Tiger Results

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4)- Finding a way to perfect your golf swing in a cold weather state can be tough. That's why the University of Colorado team started thinking outside the box and inside the bubble.

"It was off season with snow on the ground, you've got to do something," said Jon Levy, CU Assistant Golf Coach, "Can't get out on the golf course but we have a good facility in here with the football bubble."

When the golf team eyed the bubble, they also looked at a key part of the football team's practice and come up with a workout they call Tiger Practice, yes, after that Tiger.

"We were talking about how we could make practice better," said Roy Edward, the CU Head Golf Coach, "He came up and said, 'Hey I've got this thing. Tiger used to run on this course in Florida then go hit balls' and we kind of went from there. Then patterned it to what we can do in here."

And what they can do in there is run… a lot. Those golfers run four 20-yard suicides followed by two 40-yard suicides then one 80-yard suicides. That all adds up to 480 yards, all sprinting.

"Last year was the first time we did it and I didn't really know what to expect," said Jason Burstyn, a senior golfer. "I didn't know if it was going to be hard or not and when we first went through it I was like 'Wow, this really sucks.'"

After the sprints, comes the golf. The players have to immediately hit 18 shots to three different targets. And the running and the golfing all have to be completed in four minutes.

"One of the things you can do is run a bunch of sprints, get the heart rate up," Edward said. "Then have to immediately go into a situation where you have to control your breathing, control your heart rate as much as possible and really feel what it is like under pressure when the tournament is on the line down the stretch."

"You might need to hit a shot where you feel nervous," said sophomore David Oraee. "This definitely hits the nail on the head for trying to slow your breathing, control your emotions to just take the shot at hand."

"There's no doubt we have be creative. Bottom line is we have to get better and we try to find things we can do to be the best team we can bed," said Levy.

But just how well does it work. When CBS's Eric Christensen gave it a try, he made six of those critical post-running shots.

Want more proof? One week before changing the workout, CU finished dead last at tournament in California. After going through the Tiger practice, just one week later they won the Bandon Dunes Tournament.

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